Commercial Confidential: Northlake Mall

Editor’s note: “Commercial Confidential” is a Mecklenburg Times profile of a commercial property in the Charlotte area.

Northlake Mall opened in 2005 in north Charlotte, an area that seemed primed for residential growth.

A burst of residential construction around Northlake Mall will help it succeed, said a local retail analyst. Photo by Payton Guion

But just a couple of years after the mall opened, the Great Recession came on the scene. According to Andy Misiaveg, a partner in the Charlotte office of the Atlanta-based Shopping Center Group, the mall didn’t have time to solidify its tenant mix before the economy tanked.

Today, the mall’s tenant mix could stand to be improved upon, said Misiaveg, a retail market analyst.

“The mentality was that it would have a much more regional draw,” he said. “But they opened without a ton of density around it. Then the recession hit.”

Northlake’s owner could not be reached for comment.

Misiaveg said the mall could have a “regional feel.” But that’s only going to happen if it has the “right” tenants, he said.

“It’s right near two interstates,” he said. “One key will be trying to complement the tenant mix. Not just adding more national retailers, but adding local tenants that will work well with the already established retailers.”

When the mall opened, Misiaveg said, the residential area around it wasn’t dense enough to draw hordes of shoppers. Then the recession began, and construction on homes and apartments slowed. With the population around the mall not increasing rapidly, prospective tenants were hesitant to sign leases at Northlake, Misiaveg said.

But in the past several months, hundreds of apartment units around the mall have either gone under construction or have been given the green light.

Construction started last month on Highland Park, a 240-unit, 240,000-square-foot apartment project off Reames Road, less than 1.5 miles from the mall. That project is expected to start leasing in the first quarter of 2014.

More projects are under construction around Northlake: the 286-unit Madison Square at Northlake and the 247-unit Perimeter Lofts, both of which are less than a mile from the mall.

Misiaveg said the addition of those apartments might help bring retailers to the mall, which he said sits on “great property in a great area.”

“It’s in Charlotte, which is always a growth area,” he said, “and it’s a nice, newer property with great growth and great traffic.”